Paradise
' |image= |series= |production=40512-435 |producer(s)= |story= Jim Trombetta and James Crocker |script= Jeff King and Richard Manning & Hans Beimler |director= Corey Allen |imdbref=tt0708574 |guests=Gail Strickland as Alixus, Julia Nickson as Cassandra, Steve Vinovich as Joseph, Michael Buchman Silver as Vinod, Erick Weiss as Stephen |previous_production=Whispers |next_production=Shadowplay |episode=DS9 S02E15 |airdate=13 February 1994 |previous_release=(DS9) Whispers (Overall) Lower Decks |next_release=(DS9) Shadowplay (Overall) Thine Own Self |story_date(s)=47573.1 (2370) |previous_story=(DS9) Whispers (Overall) Thine Own Self |next_story=(DS9) Shadowplay (Overall) Masks }} Summary Discovering a human colony on a supposedly uninhabited world, Sisko and O'Brien beam down, only to find that their equipment has stopped working. The colony leader, Alixus, explains that the same thing happened to them when they were forced to land there ten years ago. Consequently they've learned to grow their own food, weave their own clothing, and even discover their own medicines by scavenging the forest for herbs and fungi. Alixus welcomes them into the community, asking only that they contribute. After watching a young woman of the community die of an insect bite, however, Sisko orders O'Brien to find a way to communicate with the runabout. Alixus catches O'Brien "wasting time" and sentences "cool hand" Sisko to the "box" - a metal container left all day in the sun. Eventually O'Brien locates the reason none of the equipment works: a duonetic field generator is buried in the woods. Alixus helped invent the device and created the problems on the transport to bring the colonists to the planet ten years ago. She wanted to test her theories about the reinvigoration of the human spirit. After turning off the device, O'Brien frees Sisko. The pair then take Alixus and her son into custody before returning to the runabout. Believing that they've gained more than they've lost, the rest of the colonists voluntarily stay behind. Errors and Explanations Plot Oversights # This episode occurs on star date 47573. 1. The previous episode, Whispers, began on star date 47569.4 and ran through 47581.2. In other words, right in the middle of preparations for the Paradan peace talks, Sisko took the replicant O'Brien out in a runabout to scout for habitable planets and had this little adventure? The rebels may not have discovered the plan until O’Brien arrived for the final preparations after the events shown here. # Sisko and O'Brien make an interesting choice in this episode. They arrive at the planet, pick up human life forms, try all hailing frequencies, and get no response. O'Brien says he's picking up a low-level duonetic field that may be blocking communications. So what do they do next? They both beam down, and - sure enough - that duonetic field was blocking communications, and now they can’t get back to the runabout! There may not have been an area close enough that was suitable for a safe landing. # While the plot summary above is accurate - at least I think it is - it doesn't tell the whole story of the episode. At some point Alixus tums off the duonetic field, beams up to the Rio Grande, sets the controls for it to fly into the system's star, beams back down, and turns the duonetic field back on—feeling confident that the runabout is gone for good. In fact, the Rio Grande misses the star. Kira and Dax later corral the runaway vessel and return to the colony to pick up Sisko and O'Brien. There is a myriad of problems in the preceding paragraph, but we'll go through them one at a time in the course of this review. Lets start with a simple one. Kira and Dax initially locate the Rio Grande when the Romulan vessel Gasko reports seeing it flying at warp uninhabited. Personally, I find it very considerate of the Romulans to notify DS9 of this small fact instead of commandeering the runabout, taking it back to Romulan space, and stripping it of any technological secrets it might possess. Maybe they already know everything there is to know about runabouts. # Joseph—one of the colonists— has been living on an isolated planet for too long. At end of the episode, he makes a speech and comments that the colonists will have to decide if they want to establish contact with the "outside world." Just which world would that be? This could be a metaphorical reference. # Some nitpickers found it inconceivable that not one colonist would want to get back to civilization. I understand their point. Perhaps they are too used to their current way of life. Changed Premises # At the beginning of this episode, Sisko asks O'Brien to allow Jake to work with him. Sisko is hoping to get his son ready for Starfleet Academy. The commander is worried because Jake placed in the lower third of his age group in mechanical aptitude. O'Brien thinks that's great because he did the same. O’Brien then goes on to tell Sisko that he discovered his talent for engineering when he had ten minutes to fix a field transporter on Sedik Ill or become a Cardassian prisoner. He says he didn't know a transporter from a turbolift at the time but he accomplished the task, became the tactical officer on the Rutledge, and "got the gold suit." This bit of "history" gives the impression that O'Brien never really understood mechanical things until that fateful day on Setlik III. Yet in Booby Trap we learned that O'Brien built ships in bottles as a child. In the previous episode, Whispers, we learned that O'Brien played with inverters for subspace transceivers as a boy. Do these sound like the activities of a young man who didn't get mechanical things? Lots of children play with things without really understanding how they work! # The first time we see O'Brien on the Enterprise in Encounter at Farpoint (TNG), he wears a red uniform, not a gold one. That means O'Brien went from wearing gold on the Rutledge to wearing red on the Enterprise and then back to gold. Having a little trouble making a career decision, are we? His assignment as Battle Bridge Conn may have been designed to enhance his skills. Equipment Oddities # Let's talk about Alixus and the Rio Grande. First, how did she contact the runabout in the first place? Has she been hiding a communicator all these years? There may be communication circuitry in the duonetic field generator, Second, after first contact, how did Alixus get the computer to beam her up? Are we to believe that these runabouts will offer a ride to any stranger who happens by? Can anybody just get on the right frequency and say, 'Computer, one to beam up"? She probably requested an emergency beam out. Third, after she made it to the Rio Grande, how did she set a course? In The Jem’Hadar, Jake and Nog tried to get a runabout back to DS9, but the little ship just kept asking for the correct codes. The pair eventually ripped enough stuff out of the console to disable the autopilot but leave manual navigation intact. But that was only because Jake had been working with O'Brien. Alixus is ten years out of the loop on technology. How did she pull this off? (Or did O'Brien integrate the autopilot safeties into the runabouts after this little adventure? If so, it seems like a huge design flaw to let anybody waltz up and take control of a ship.) She probably worked out a way to overide any security lockouts in the computer system ''' # Contacting DS9 after sighting the Rio Grande, the Gasko reports the vessel flying at warp 2. When Kira and Dax catch up to it, Dax reports that it is running at warp 1.3. Why did it slow down? '''Gravitational influences? # After finding the Rio Grande running at warp 1.3 without any inhabitants, Kira and Dax must devise a plan to recapture the ship. Now, friends, this is not the first time in the Star Trek universe that we have seen our heroes take remote control of a ship. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, we saw Kirk use prefix codes to shut off the Reliant's shields. In Unnatural Selection we saw Picard take remote control of the bridge functions of the Lantree using a Security override request code. Just a few episodes ago, Sisko remote-piloted the Ganges to its death. Obviously it's possible to seize control of this type of Starfleet vessel using command codes. Or if for some unknown reason that wouldn't work, why couldn't they hail the Rio Grande and tell it to stop? It evidently listens to just about anyone! There may be something in the scans of the Rio Grande to indicate an intermittent problem with it’s comm system. # Continuing on with this theme, Kira first suggests beaming over to the Rio Grande at warp. Dax immediately pooh- poohs this idea as too dangerous. Excuse me! O'Brien did it just fine in The Best of Both Worlds Part 2 Dax may not be skilled enough to do this. # Surprisingly enough, no one seems to conclude that this duonetic field would make a great weapon. Just get it close enough to an enemy vessel and you can shut it down completely! It would just as easily disable your own ship in the process! Nit Central # Kathryn Ramage on Saturday, May 13, 2000 - 3:31 pm: In this episode, Sisko talks about how he and his brothers used to help out their father in the restaurant. By the 4th season (Homefront/Paradise Lost), Ben's brothers seem to have disappeared; only one (half) sister, Judith, is mentioned. Maybe they became estranged since then. # margie on Saturday, July 01, 2000 - 7:11 pm: Sisko also mentioned that his father WAS a chef, as in past tense. Later in the series, I thought we saw that his father is still a chef! Chris Thomas on Wednesday, July 05, 2000 - 5:51 pm: Is it possible his father was a chef, gave it up for a little while, and then went back to being a chef? # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, September 14, 2000 - 1:44 am: My mom wondered why Sisko didn't say no when asked to stand watch. Mike Nuss on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 11:25 pm: He would have been punished # Why didn't Sisko file a flight plan, or at least, send a message to DS9 that they had found a colony? Perhaps he was constantly relaying info from the runabout back to DS9, which would explain why Kira and Dax came looking for them. # This ship was 'lost' 10 years earlier, but no rescue mission ever found it? Just how shoddy are these rescue missions anyway? Maybe Alexis gave orders for no-one to follow them. # '' Spockania on Tuesday, October 31, 2000 - 11:03 pm:'' How big can this duonetic field be? It's being supplied by a generator. If O'Brien or Sisko walked a few miles away, wouldn't their equipment work? It may have been permanently damaged. # Alexis suggests that Sisko take off his uniform, commenting that it gets hot in the fields. In a later episode Worf comments that Starfleet uniforms were designed for comfort under the most extreme conditions. Considering Sisko's antipathy to Alexis and his understanding of her motivations, shouldn't he make a similar comment? Alexis would have dismissed it out of hand. # Alexis may be a technophobe, but shouldn't Joseph have urged the construction of steam engines, mechanical reapers, and the like? They wouldn't be affected by a field and they had plenty of 'useless' plastics and metals to use, and they have apparently developed at least basic metalworking skills. Alexis may have considered such devices as too close to technology to be acceptable. # D.K. Henderson on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 8:44 am: O'Brien came back to the "village square", shoving Alixus' son before him. He told them about the artificially created duonetic field. Why, why, why didn't he mention that the boy had attempted to murder him? It might have shocked the villagers out of their submissive attitude. It might even possibly have shocked Alixus out of her complacency. They may have refused to believe the attempted murder charge. # Joseph seems prepared to take over Alixus' role of tyrant. He spoke up for the entire colony, and the people, too long cowed by Alixus, never really had the chance to speak up for themselves. In addition, some of those people standing there must have lost loved ones to Alixus' fanaticism. Couldn't one have them have said, "My son (daughter, husband, wife) might be alive today if it wasn't for you!" Possibly a symptom of collective shock. # Pair of Dice on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 7:22 pm: Why do we (at least through this point in the series) only see exploration done with runabouts? I know the Enterprise is just one ship, and maybe they don't have a lot of Galaxy-class starships, but still. I've always thought (read: assumed) that Starfleet had *dozens* or even hundreds of starships on essentially the same mission as the Enterprise (The Excelsior was wrapping one up in ST6, IIRC). Yes, I know there was a Borg attack a few years before, but Starfleet should have some Nebula- or Excelsior- or Miranda-class ships exploring now. Especially in the Gamma Quadrant. (I know this colony probably wasn't in the GQ, but this is good a place as any to mention it. Maybe Sisko gets dibs on exploring the other side of his wormhole?) Seniram There may not be any other ships available. # Geoff Capp (Gcapp) on Wednesday, May 05, 2010 - 5:52 am: A warp tow of the Rio Grande by the Orinoco seems entirely unnecessary. As long ago as 1988, I saw one diesel locomotive control two others that were connected to it in series: a single engineer could control three engines together and use their combined power to pull a train. It stands to reason, then, that Dax should be able to use the Orinoco's command systems to have the Rio Grande keep close to them in formation, possibly keeping the Rio Grande within the Orinoco's warp field, or having both ships generate identical warp fields and fly together a few kilometres apart. Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Wednesday, May 05, 2010 - 6:49 am:''Granted it's been a while since I've seen the ep; but if both ships are in working condition having to tow one seems extraneous. It's already been established that if you have the prefix code for one ship you can control it from another location; so all Dax should have to do is get both of them to follow the same course. The ships are capable of running on autopilot; how many times have we seen characters leave the cockpit or get off the controls while the ship is flying somewhere? ''Seniram Alixus may have done something to the Rio Grande to prevent this. Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine